New season predictions

Arsenal will get a top four finish.  We will be top at the new year. We won't win a trophy.
A team from Manchester will win the league, with Chelsea second. The other Manchester team third.

I think it might be City this year.  The FA Cup will be won by someone from the middle of the Premier League.

Arsenal will continue to lose matches they dominate and won't sort out our defensive frailties.

England will have at least two Champions League semi-finalists, but won't win the trophy.

Spurs will continue to be annoying.

Preseason footy: Greentown v Arsenal

Watching the second half of Arsenal's game in China against Hangzhou Greentown it seems a case of more of the same. I am grateful, from the comments made on the video stream by the Arsenal commentators, that I missed the first half.  I shall remain from commenting further on the fact that I am writing about a live football game in July.

Arsenal battered poor Greentown for nearly all of the second half. The game was pretty much Arsenal camping outside their penalty area.

This is, of course, familiar from last season.

Despite that Arsenal didn't score.

This is, of course, familiar from last season.

And on the rare ocassions that Greentown could break they managed to get behind our centre backs.

This is, of course, familiar from last season.

What is different is that the defenders covered for each other better, and Greentown didn't score against the run of play. Whether this is because Arsenal defended better or that Greentown weren't good enough to stretch Arsenal is open to question.

We created plenty of chances, but couldn't convert. Praise must go to the opposition goalie, who made several very good saves after what I felt was a shaky start. But questions about ruthlessness already suggest themselves.

This is, of course, familiar from last season.

There are positives from this:

• The midfield trio of Ramsey-Wilshire-Song looks pretty good. Given the Cesc situation that is important.
• This was my first chance to see Miyaichi: he looked pretty lively and involved.
• New signing Jenkinson looked to have good feet (apart from one embarassing slip right at the start.)

Another thing to comment on is the use of the 4-3-3 formation.
This is, of course, familiar from last season.

Looking at the very brief highlight showing Arsenal's first half goal it appears this came when Vela drifted in to the middle from his wing position, allowing him to bundle in the rebound from Van Persie's shot: we looked a bit more like 4-4-2.  Both Theo and Miyaichi did well to get into the middle, and Ramsey and Wilshire supported Chamakh well in the second half, but I would like to see more flexibility in formation: could we have a plan b earlier, and mix it up more.  No sign of that here.

This is, of course, familiar from last season.

Overall an enjoyable half, but no end product.

This is, of course, familiar from last season.

Both the Premier League and I am back

Not that half the world cares about the former, and even less care about the latter.

There hasn't been enough downtime between seasons: there were two weekends off between the World Cup final (11 July) and the Emirates cup (31st July), and a glance at Arsenal's fixture list shows they were playing matches against Barnet and had their two games in Austria in that time. Too much footy for me. Am I getting old?

Anyway time for the usual preseason optimism, and a few predictions.

First, my optimism doesn't extend to an Arsenal league win. It does tell me that Arsenal will finish above Spurs for the 16th season in a row. (I do not teach anyone who was alive when Spurs last finished above Arsenal!)

I am also not optimistic about the opening weekend. I'd settle for a draw, but that might be beyond us against a Liverpool team who ought to be fired up for the new manager.

Sticking my neck out: The league will be won by Manchester United. Chelsea will be second. Arsenal will get a champion's league place, but will be out of the championship race by February. They may top the league in early December leading to me starting to think I'm wrong and we can do it.

The game I'm just watching will provide the fourth placed finish team. I hope it will be City and not Spurs. Today I am cheering on City. Also what are Autonomy doing sponsoring Spurs?

Relegation: haven't a clue. Blackpool probably. Two others from the other two up, and the teams who got under 50 points last season.